Читать книгу Sandow on physical training: a study in the perfect type of the human form - Eugene Sandow - Страница 16

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In all ages there have been some few men possessed of unique physical power and great muscular development. Maximinius, the murderer of the Emperor Alexander Severus, is said to have been able to draw fully-laden carts and waggons without much effort, to crumble stones between his fingers, and tear young trees apart with his strong hands. Cæsar Borgia is also credited with the possession of great strength, for it is affirmed of him that he could knock down a bullock with one blow of his fist. A certain centurion in the Emperor Augustus's body-guard, tradition has it, could, by the sole strength of his arms, bear up a waggon laden with two hogsheads of wine until all the wine was drawn out. It is moreover said of him that he could carry a mule on his back as easily as he could carry a child, and stop a chariot when the horses were in full gallop. But we need not go back for such manifestations of great strength to a mythological age, or seek for them only among the heroes of antiquity. We have all read, or heard, of the Venetian athlete who, though small of stature, could break the thickest shank-bone of oxen upon his knees; of the German, Le Feur, in the sixteenth century, who could carry a pipe of wine on his shoulders; of John Bray, the Cornishman, who could carry the carcass of an ox a furlong; of Libeski, a Polander, who at Constantinople, in 1581, lifted a piece of wood which twelve men had enough to do to raise from the ground and bore on his breast a mighty stone which ten men had, with much effort, rolled thither. Nor do we forget the Scottish Highlander who, not long ago, used to uproot young oaks from the earth, cast Highland steers, and harnessing himself with horse-breeching raise a ton weight; or Topham, the strong man of the last century, who, with the aid of leathern straps passed over his shoulders, with chains attached, could lift three hogsheads of water, weighing 1836 lbs., and support on his body four men, each weighing fourteen stone.